


A Significant Obsession

by chellefic



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-23
Updated: 2008-02-23
Packaged: 2017-10-29 00:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/313760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellefic/pseuds/chellefic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set pre-Doppelganger. Rodney notices something about John.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Significant Obsession

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to thegrrrl for the paragraph she doesn't remember recommending.

"I'm sleeping with someone who has a mole."

Heightmeyer's expression didn't change. Rodney wasn't even sure she blinked. "A mole," she said in that encouraging tone therapists probably practiced in the mirror.

"On his hip." Rodney flinched. He hadn't meant to reveal the 'he' part.

"You're sleeping with a man who has a mole on his hip."

"Yes."

When Rodney didn't elaborate, Kate took a sip of her tea.

The silence grew and Rodney wondered which of them would break first.

"I like it." Apparently him.

"I see."

"What do you mean you see? What is there to see? Oh my God, have you seen the mole? You have, haven't you?"

"No, Rodney, I have not seen a mole on the hip of any man in Atlantis."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Okay then," Rodney said, but he still wasn't entirely convinced she hadn't seen the mole.

"I simply meant that I see that you find a part of your partner's body attractive that others might consider an imperfection."

"Oh." Rodney said. Kate was giving him the reassuring smile he knew she practiced in the mirror. There wasn't any way she could have learned to smile like that otherwise. "Is that significant?"

Kate took another sip of her tea and looked at him over the top of her cup. "What do you think?" she asked.

"Why would it be significant? It's just a mole, a ridiculous little mole. It's not like it's his ass, or his chest hair, or his neck, or, or something else that matters."

"If it doesn't matter why did you bring it up?"

Talking to therapists was like hunting for heffalumps with Winnie the Pooh, you kept going in circles.

He really needed to stop reading so many bedtime stories to Madison.

Rodney shrugged. "I noticed it this morning, that's all." So he'd kissed it and brushed it with his fingers, and maybe commented on its location, all of which had made John sit up in bed, frown down at his hip, and say, "It's just a mole, Rodney." Which it was, but it was John's mole, on John's hip, and that made it significant.

"Have you noticed it before?"

Of course he had. Rodney had cataloged every part of John's body, the curve of each muscle, the number and location of each of the thirteen gray hairs on his chest. "I'm a scientist. I observe."

"I see."

"Oh, no, we're not going there again. Just tell me what it means."

"Often, when someone notices and becomes fond of the little imperfections in a partner's body, it's a sign of affection."

Rodney waved his hand dismissively. Of course he felt affection for John, he wouldn't be sleeping with him otherwise.

"Deep affection," Heightmeyer said.

Frowning, Rodney asked, "How deep?"

She smiled and leaned back in her chair. "I think that's something you'll have to sort out on your own."

Rodney hated therapists.

***

Deep affection.

Of course Rodney felt deep affection for John. John was smart, and he liked Batman, even if he was mostly a Marvel fan.

And the sex was good. Fantastic, really. John liked touching, only he tended to do it with his entire body. Rodney liked that. A lot. Then there was the kissing, and the blowjobs, and the fact that every inch of John was hot.

Rodney needed to stop thinking about sex before it gave him an erection. Entering the lab, he went straight for his bench. Radek looked up long enough to smile, but no one else seemed to notice he was there, which was fine with Rodney. He had work to do.

Pulling his stool closer to his bench, he sat and opened up his laptop to review the latest sensor data. Nothing had changed, not that he had thought it would. But he still had to look. John counted on him to examine the data daily.

Not that Rodney wouldn't check the data anyway, an unexpected encounter with the wraith or the replicators wasn't exactly his idea of a good time.

Resting his chin on his hand, he began to look more closely at the data.

One of the ancient letters had a point on the side that was about the same size and shape as John's mole. Maybe that's why it was significant. Maybe it was connected to the ATA gene.

Or maybe Rodney was going out of his mind.

***

John was already eating lunch when Rodney took the seat across from his. John smiled at him, the warm smile he used in public, which was awfully close to the even warmer smile he used in private.

Given the affect the really warm smile usually had on Rodney it was just as well John used it only when they were alone.

"How was your morning?" John asked.

"Fine." Heightmeyer said I have deep affection for you. Rodney picked up his fork and jabbed it into some lettuce. "Nothing unusual on the sensor data."

"Good."

Rodney nodded. John was looking at him closely. Peering, really, it was unsettling. "What?"

"Nothing."

Picking up his knife Rodney cut into the tomato slice on the top of his salad. The seeds absolutely did not remind him of John's mole.

***

The whole mole thing was ridiculous. Ludicrous. Yes, that's what it was. Ludicrous. Just because he liked a mole on John's hip that did not mean he had deep affection for him. Any deeper than a normal person would have.

"Rodney."

"What?" he snapped, looking up to find Radek pointing at his screen.

"You have typed the same line of code three times."

He had. Rodney turned to glare at Zelenka, who was already glaring at him.

"Do not glare at me, Rodney. You are the one who is distracted today."

Deleting the extra lines, Rodney went back to work, determined not to think about John's mole-laden hips.

Except his hips weren't really mole-laden, because there was only the one, it was just really well-placed.

Rodney dropped his chin to his chest and groaned.

***

"Before you ask, I had a terrible day."

"Okay," John said, not looking up from his comic book. He was stretched on his bed, legs crossed at the ankle, leaning against the wall.

"Is that the new Astonishing X-Men?"

"No."

"It looks like the new Astonishing."

"It's not."

Unconvinced, Rodney sat on the edge of the bed, and leaned in for a better look.

"So, your day," John said.

"What about my day?"

"You said it was terrible."

"Zelenka caught mistakes in my code, which I only made because of Heightmeyer and your stupid mole."

John finally lowered the comic. "What does Heightmeyer have to do with my mole?"

Rodney shifted his gaze away from John's. "It may have come up this morning."

"You told her about my mole?"

"I didn't tell her whose mole it was. Just that I was sleeping with someone who had one. She seems to think the fact that I noticed it is significant. Somehow." Rodney waved his hand in a demonstration of how ludicrous the whole idea was.

"Significant?" John raised his eyebrows, but one side of his mouth was curling upward.

"She said it was a sign of deep affection, as though she could tell I was in love with you just because I noticed a stupid mole."

"You have a mole."

"I do?"

"Left side of your back, right about here," John said, touching a spot about half-way down Rodney's back.

"How come you never mentioned it?"

John shrugged. "Figured you knew. It's not like I'm obsessed with it or anything."

"I am not obsessed with your mole."

"You're just in love with me."

"Yes, exactly. That's exactly it. I am not obsessed. I'm just--" John was smiling, a smile even brighter than his usual smile and Rodney stuttered to a halt. "I hate you."

John kissed him. Rodney tried not to kiss back, for all of about ten seconds.

"For the record," John said, drawing just far enough back that Rodney could see his grin. "I noticed your mole first."

Confident that Heightmeyer would consider that significant, Rodney let John kiss him again.


End file.
